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I have an important word of advice for the royal couple: Don’t touch that cake!!!! It will destroy your svelte royal waistlines. Here’s a much better one!

This absolutely amazing cake recipe will not go straight to your royal thighs. It is light, delicious, and—believe it or not—has only 2 grams of fat per serving. How did we manage to keep the fat so low? Instead of packing in the usual butter and eggs, we used a bit of applesauce as a binder, and it works perfectly.

This recipe is printed in 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart, along with dozens of others by Chef Jason Wyrick, who has really outdone himself with everything from delicious breakfast pancakes to linguine with seared oyster mushrooms and wonderful desserts. This particular cake recipe is from Alka Chandna, and it has an interesting history.

Wacky Chocolate Cake

Here is a delightful version of legendary Wacky Cake, which is said to have its origins in World War II rationing, when milk and eggs were hard to come by. At the time, the cake was lower in fat and cholesterol, not by choice but by necessity. Today, those characteristics are virtues.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl and stir with a fork until mixed. In a separate bowl, whisk vanilla, applesauce, vinegar, and water. Pour the mixed wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until well mixed. Pour into a 9"x9" baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

A new study will make people think twice about taking fish-oil capsules—or eating fish, for that matter. The American Journal of Epidemiology reports that men with higher levels of DHA, one of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, were at increased risk of developing prostate cancer.

Researchers from Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center looked at 3,461 participants in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial and found that men with the most DHA in their bloodstreams were two-and-a-half times more likely to have an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Similar results were found in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study, where men who had the highest omega-3 levels had the highest risk for prostate cancer.

In many recent studies, fish oil has not lived up to its marketing claims. Specifically, it is no help for heart patients, does not forestall Alzheimer’s disease, does not prevent depression, and—so far at least—does not make babies smarter.

Surprisingly, Harvard linked fish and omega-3 fats to type 2 diabetes. Following 195,204 adults for 14 to 18 years, researchers reported in 2009 that they had found that the more fish or long-chain omega-3 fatty acids participants consumed, the higher their risk of developing diabetes.

Meanwhile, fish oil manufacturers pinned their hopes on brain function. Maybe fish oil will make you smarter, they reasoned. But last year, what researchers found dashed those hopes, too. A group of 867 elderly people were randomly assigned to either a fish-oil supplement or placebo. After two years of supplementation, elderly adults showed no benefit at all in tests for reaction time, spatial memory, and processing speed measurements. A later JAMA report showed that omega-3 supplements do not slow mental decline in Alzheimer’s patients. And at the other end of the age spectrum, babies get no benefit either. A JAMA report showed that consumption of fish oil during pregnancy does not benefit babies’ cognitive development.

In these reports, fish oil is starting to look a lot like snake oil. The new findings linking higher DHA levels to cancer add yet another reason to skip fish and fish oil supplements.

Are you a health professional? Learn more about diet and cancer for continuing education credits at NutritionCME.org.

In case you’re interested in the references for these studies, here they are: